Author Archives: Nina Bannett

Your papers and your final grades

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Hi everyone,

One last reminder that you can still post Blog Post #3 until midnight tonight to receive extra credit!  You can also post comments to Blog Post #3.  The deadline for posting vocabulary words has passed.  

Starting January 2, I will have graded Paper #2 and you may pick it up in the English Department (Namm 512). You should ask the department secretary, Ms. Lily Lam, and she will return it to you.  Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 pm.  The phone number is 718-260-5392.

I am hoping to have final grades posted in CUNYFirst by the end of the weekend.  If you want a breakdown of your final grade (or to know your grade on the final exam), please email me at nbannett@citytech.cuny.edu once your final grade is posted.

Final grade calculation:

Paper #1: 20%
Paper #2: 20%
Midterm exam: 10%
Final exam:15%
Quizzes, classwork, participation:10%
Open Lab Work: 25% (10 vocabulary words, 2 required blog posts, 3 required comments; Blog Post #3 counts as extra credit and erases a failing vocabulary quiz grade)

Here’s my poet website that we looked at in class today:

www.ninabannett.com

Wishing you all a restful January–I really enjoyed our class this semester.

Blog Post #3: Your Thoughts on Spoken Word Poetry

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Blog Post #3—My Thoughts on Spoken Word Poetry

Must be posted by Mon, December 17, 2018 by 11:59 pm

Assignment: Write a blog post of about 200 words (at least 2 strong paragraphs) in which you react to studying spoken word poetry.  Here are some questions you might consider in writing your post.  Here are some questions to help you write a focused post.  You don’t need to answer all of these questions, but a strong post will respond to a few of them:

  • Which spoken word poems that we read were your favorites, which didn’t you connect with?
  • What did you think of the film we watched, Louder Than a Bomb (2011)? What surprised you about it?  What did you learn from it?
  • Do you prefer spoken word poetry over older kinds of texts? Or vice versa?  Why?  Give examples of texts to help us understand your preference.
  • Do you write spoken word poetry? If so, would you like to share a poem with the class? Feel free to post it and talk about what inspired it.
  • Do you think you could perform spoken word poetry: why or why not?
  • Are there other spoken word poets whose work you know that you would like to introduce to the class? If so, feel free to introduce us to his or her work and tell us how you found it, and what you find compelling about it.
  • Are there connections between spoken word poetry and contemporary music, like rap or hip hop? Write about specific songs, artists, poets, or texts.
  • Have you ever been to a spoken word performance? Where and when?  What was it like? If not, do you think you would go to one in the future? Why or why not?

Please title your Post, My Thoughts on Spoken Word Poetry and choose Blog Post #3 as a category when you post.

Remember to comment on at least one other student’s blog post by December 19th at 11:59 pm. 

 

 

 

Sample Works Cited page for Paper #2

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Hi everyone,

I’ve put together a sample Works Cited page that shows you entries for a poem from our textbook, a poem you’re using that’s online, and a newspaper article you’ve found through a database.  Please note that this is a sample and does not list four sources. 

Your Works Cited page should:

  1. have a minimum of four sources listed in alphabetical order (the poem you’re writing about, and three newspaper articles).
  2. be double-spaced
  3. use a hanging indent for all entries (where only the first line for each entry is indented)
MLA 8th edition

Working on Paper #2 on November 28

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Hi everyone,

I hope you found today’s library session with Prof. Anne Leonard helpful.  Below is the handout she distributed in class to assist you with finding sources:

Handout on Research

For Wednesday’s class, you should keep working on your paper, using this handout, and refine your thesis and conduct some research.

Please bring hard copies of the sources you’ve found for the paper to class on Wednesday, as well as your annotated poem. If you have a draft of the paper, you may bring that also.

Here’s what we’ll work on in class on Wednesday:

  • refining your thesis and developing the paper
  • brief recap of finding sources
  • review of MLA format 8th edition for Works Cited page
  • work on draft of Works Cited page–entry for your poem and for the news sources you plan on using in your paper

One last reminder that Blog Post #2 needs to be posted by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, November 28th for you to receive credit. 

 

Online Resources for Works Cited in MLA format

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To help you compose the Works Cited page for Paper #2, there are different online resources available:

Works Cited: A Quick Guide

Or, you can look at MLA format (8th edition) on the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL):

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

You can also use a citation manager when you do your research, or export the citations.  There are many roads that can lead you to a correctly formatted Works Cited page!

Prof. Leonard mentioned https://zbib.org as a free citation manager that you might try.

 

Mon, November 26 we will meet at the library

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Hi everyone,

One last reminder that we will meet at the library on Monday, November 26th to work on Paper #2 with a librarian.   We will meet outside the entrance to the library on Monday, November 26th, the class after Thanksgiving. If you are late, you can find us in the library classroom by going up the stairs inside the library, and making a right turn to room 540.

 

 

Now that You Have a Thesis, Start to Develop it

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Hi everyone,

Most of you now have a least a working thesis, or you will by Monday,  so it’s time to start developing it.  This will involve not only re-reading the poem but doing the research.

We’ll meet outside the library (4th floor of Library Building) for Monday’s class (November 26).  Prof. Anne Leonard from the library will be talking about finding and evaluating news sources.  If you arrive late, you can find us in the computer classroom on the 5th floor of the library. Go inside the library and up the stairs and make a right.

  1. Read over the poem you’ve chosen.  Which lines, images, points, or ideas are most important to the argument you want to make?   Circle what looks most important. Add a few more thoughts to these.  Annotate your copy of the poem.   Don’t be afraid to use poetic terms to help you explain what you see.
  2. In a Word file, make an outline of the most important ideas or points in an order that makes sense to you. Start developing/writing your points out and listing/adding examples and quotations to the outline.  Also save this to a cloud service like com.  If you prefer, write this out by hand on paper–maybe take a picture so you don’t have to worry about losing the outline.
  3. Now write out a rough introduction paragraph where you make an argument about the poem where you connect it to the contemporary news event.  Continue to follow your rough outline and start writing the other sections of the paper.
  4. Handling research: even while you are in in the brainstorming phase, you should be looking over your research materials.  Pick one to start, then another one, etc.  Take brief notes on your sources: always jot down page numbers if you have them.  You’re thinking about where the research has points or examples that can help you make your own argument stronger or more specific.  When adding information from a research source into your paper, work from your brief notes, so you avoid plagiarizing the research!  Of course, you will transcribe a direct quotation word for word.   Think, though, about where you can put the research author’s point into your own words and then support this point with a direct quotation.  Always give an in-text citation for quotes or paraphrases.